All The Things She Said
by redhandedwickedlittlemachine
Summary: Lucian Oneshot Series number one. It's Christmas time, and Ian has a lot on his mind. RATED M! Lucian.
1. All The Things She Said

_All The Things She Said_

Ian stared at the screen of his iPad, thoroughly dumbstruck. It was starting to feel like his relationship with Lucy was always two steps forward, one step back.

Her twitter feed was pulled up on his screen and no matter how many times he read her posts and then switched back to the interview she'd given just two days earlier, it infuriated him more.

Someone had tweeted her, asking if she was in a relationship. She had simply winked in reply.

He tapped his screen a few times, closing her twitter feed and opening up the interview again.

_Interviewer: You've got a lot of success with Pretty Little Liars, and now you're working on an album. The question we keep getting most though from your fans: Who's the better kisser? Ian or Drew? _

_**Lucy: [laughs] you know, they both have their own techniques. Ian would tell me to pick him, because most of his scenes are with me. Drew's good though, too. Yeah. Drew. **_

Ian shook his head, pushing the button at the bottom to shut the iPad off. He closed the case it was held in and settled it on the table in front of him and then walked out of the kitchen. He headed towards his sitting room. The knot in his throat was tight as he looked around.

His love for Lucy was far from a secret. Pictures of them literally covered his walls in almost every single open space. Photos from Pretty Little Liars photo shoots, as well pictures they had gotten done together outside of work.

In the last year and a half, they had done a lot to keep their relationship away from the public eye. They were both young actors, and Ian knew that if they wanted to keep things going as well as they seemed to be for the both of them, then it was better to appear single. It gave them both a better edge at being looked at for a wider range of roles. Neither of them wanted to be thought of as tied down. They both worried that if they told people that they were together, they'd be seen as nothing more than 'that couple that plays a couple on that show twelve year old girls watch'.

Ian huffed and shook his head. He walked over to the small tree set up in the corner of his apartment and squatted down, resting on the tips of his toes as he picked up one of the wrapped gifts. He had been waiting for over two weeks to see her. They hadn't even parted at the airport. She had taken a four AM flight to spend Christmas with her family two days after the finale. Ian hadn't even had time at that point to go shopping for her gift.

Still, he felt the lack of her presence everywhere from the very minute she was gone. It was more than just the space beside him on his California king being cold. It was more than her giggles missing from the sitting room as she chatted on the phone with Ashley, Shay, and Troian.

It was like she was the other half of him. He remembered when they first had said that they needed to branch out; just a few episodes into the first season. They joked that they spent so much time kissing at work, why not look for something different outside of Pretty Little Liars. The funny part was that she was the one looking for something else. He waited the long, irritating six weeks that she searched for something 'different' (which ironically transformed itself into 'better' inside his head). He asked her every day if she had found what she was looking for.

And he still remembered the day she walked into his dressing room and tackled him to his couch. He'd been off set for more than ten days, when he hadn't been needed for episodes seven and eight. He had taken the short break and flown across the country to spend a few days with his parents before he returned back to LA. Lucy had practically stormed into his room, and he had barely been there for five minutes. She had shoved him down onto the couch and straddled one of his legs, and proceeded to have the most passionate kiss he had shared with her up to that point. There had been so much yearning and unadulterated fervor in that kiss, that it had sealed a conversation they never even had to have.

Even when he was frustrated with her, it was hard to be angry. He turned the present over in his hands. Last Christmas might've been the most ridiculous year they'd had. He remembered how Holly had written him a letter for Christmas, and promised to sick her son, Finley, on Ian if he did anything to hurt Lucy.

Yet, he was beginning to wonder if he wasn't the one ending up more hurt with the time that continued to pass. Lucy seemed more than amicable to coming off as still single, and he felt like the third wheel in his own relationship.

His phone started to sing in his pocket. Even when he tried not to, he smiled. He pulled it from the confines of his jeans.

"_Oh, darling,  
><em>_I love you so,  
><em>_If you'd ask me for my heart,  
><em>_There's no way that I'd say no_

_Oh, darling,  
><em>_Just take a chance, please  
><em>_So we can stay together 'til hell starts to freeze."_

He opened the new text message.

**Lucy: Knock, Knock.**

Ian looked over his shoulder at the door. Lucy had a key. He wondered if she was trying to pull a prank on him. He typed out a reply.

**Who's there?  
><strong>_Message is sending… …. Message sent!_

He looked over his shoulder again at the door.

"_Oh, darling,  
><em>_I love you so-"_

He opened the new text message.

**Lucy: A girlfriend without her keys. They're buried under everything in my suitcase. Open up plz?**

Ian chuckled as he pushed up to his feet. He walked across the room and strode up to the door. He turned over the deadbolt and then stepped out of the way as he opened the door.

Lucy waltzed in, shoving her suitcase and bags down off her arms and turning directly to him. Ian raised an eyebrow at her, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Hi?"

He was prepared for what came next, but the launch was still enough to knock him off his feet. His apartment door wasn't even shut as she jumped into his arms, kicking both her legs up behind her. In a twist of usual events, it was her tongue searching for access as they tumbled backwards and fell to the floor. Lucy didn't let that stop her. She dropped both her knees on either side of him and pinned his arms above his head while they ensued in a game of tonsil hockey. Her skirt rose up high on her thighs. Her present rolled out of Ian's hand, a few inches away. As their kiss came to a close, Ian nibbled on her lower lip.

They parted after a few minutes, and Lucy hovered a few inches above him, still having him pinned down.

"You seem to like things from this view," he teased.

She shook her head as she giggled. "Are you complaining?"

Ian quickly slipped his arms from her grasp and clamped his hands down on her hips, grinding them down. "Do I seem like I'm complaining." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Your name certainly is apropos, **Hard**ing." Lucy teased. "Good thing Ezra Fitz has nothing on you."

Ian flipped them over, kicking his door shut as he did so. Lucy had her one of her legs hooked between his while the other wrapped around his hips, keeping him pinned down against her.

"Ezra Fitz is a baby seal compared to me," he said huskily. "And he never thought of doing half the things to Aria that I want to do to you right now."

"Well you would know," Lucy replied. Ian had her pinned at her shoulders. She tried to lean up to kiss him. He pulled up out of her reach.

"C'mon, Ian, don't tease. You're not being fair," she whined.

He nodded. "Kinda like how you weren't fair in that interview two days ago," he asked.

Lucy frowned. "Ian-" He shook his head. "You know I read everything you say. You **know** I do. Everything you post, every interview, every photo you tweet…You know what's been going through my head since this morning?" Lucy looked up around from where she laid. "Am I going to spend the rest of the afternoon here," she asked, ran his hands slowly down her arms until he reached her hands. He laced his fingers into hers and then moved her arms up until her hands were on either side of her head.

"Depends." He was smiling.

Lucy looked back at him and tilted her head. "C'mon, Ian. You know I love you. You know there's no one else I want to be with." He chewed the inside of his bottom lip as he pondered her comment. "I _know_ you don't want to be with anyone else? I mean I _really_ know it?" Lucy raised her hips slightly, trying to shift into a slightly more comfortable position. Ian growled lowly.

She looked into his eyes. His pupils were almost completely black. Only thin rims of blue-grey iris showed. She stared at him quizzically for a moment before she repeated the previous motion. He growled again, releasing one of her arms. He moved his hand to wrap under her chin. He turned her head to the side and nuzzled his face into the side of her neck, nibbling and suckling on the spot just below her ear.

Lucy slipped her free hand down between them and pulled the button of his jeans apart, sliding her hand inside. She wrapped her hand around his erection.

"Good fucking God, Ian. What the hell do you do when I'm not here? Pray to a higher power for a quick return?"

"Two God-forsaken weeks," he rasped, grinding his hips against her. "Two weeks after waking up to an empty bed with no note." She could hear the irritation in his voice. She turned to look at him.

"I called when I knew you'd be waking up." He released her other arm and moved his hands down to her skirt. He slipped his hands under it and gripped the elastic band of her tights. He curled his fingers inside them, as well as her panties, and yanked.

"You leave here like it means nothing," he argued. "And you talk about me like I'm nothing more than a pat on your back." She squeezed the head of his penis. Ian exhaled a hard breath, almost shaking with fervent need. Lucy let go of him and moved her both of her hands to the waistband of his jeans. She pushed his boxers down until his throbbing erection was free of its confines.

She brought her hands up to his face, making him look at her. "You know that's not how I **feel.** There's-" "Fuck it," he groaned. He tore open her button-up blouse as he readjusted them. Lucy shifted her pelvis, rising up to meet him. The wetness of her lower lips brushing against him only enticed another moan from his lips. He rested his weight on one hand as he reached down between them and slid a finger inside of her vagina.

Lucy began to breathe harder, as they stared each other down. She tilted her head up and her upper body began to rise up from the floor, trying to meet his languid strokes. Their position gave her little room to move against him.

"It's a bitch, isn't it?" He taunted. He brushed his thumb over her clitoris with maximum force.

Lucy let out a loud squeal of surprise, shuddering.

"Not being able to do anything, when you're pushed into a corner, and all you wanna do," he removed his hand from inside of her and adjusted his cock to line up with her entrance. He thrust forward as hard as he could. "Is **slam** me up against a wall." He leaned down and brushed his tongue along the inside of her parted lips. Lucy dug her fingers into his hair and lured his tongue further into her mouth. He pulled away quickly, though he was moving painstakingly slow, pulling out of her.

"And have your way with me. But you can't do that," he continued as he placed open-mouth kisses along her jaw line. He reached her collarbone and bit down. He slipped a hand under her, raising her hips as he finished withdrawing from her. The angle allowed him to brush against her clitoris as he entered her. Ian looked up at her. She was shaking from all the sexual torture. "When the person you love so much it hurts is mind fucking you. So instead you play with them when you've got them right down at their most vulnerable." "God damnit, Ian, if you don't do something about it soon, I swear I'll tie you to the bed when you fall asleep tonight and give you hell for the next two days," Lucy yelped.

He knew she was good for it. She'd involved handcuffs in foreplay before. Maybe he didn't mind it. He was slowly thrusting back into her. He used his free hand to reach behind him and yank her boot off of her foot.

"Pain and pleasure are the same thing," he said.

Lucy whimpered. She couldn't move at all with his hand pinned under her pelvis.

Ian settled inside her fully for the second time. He rolled his hips in a figure eight motion. Lucy squealed again, and her eyes grew wide.

"Oh, GOD, Ian! Fuck!"

He moved his hand out from under her and reached between them. He pushed his thumb between her folds and pressed up against her clitoris and began to move it back and forth as he repeated the motion. Lucy dug her fingers into the back of his neck, moaning with each movement he made.

"Oh, G-God! I'm- Ian!" She screamed his name as she clamped down on him, holding tightly to the hair at the base of his skull.

"It's about fucking time," he growled. He pulled both of her hands out of his hair and pinned them above her as he began to thrust in and out of her with reckless abandon. Lucy dug her nails into the back of his hands where their finger were intertwined, struggling to come down from one high as her body started building towards another.

Ian's lips crashed on hers, and they dueled for control as his thrusting became more erratic. Lucy bit down on his bottom lip until she drew blood. They only broke apart for mere seconds before their lips were upon each other again, searching each other's bodies.

He brought her to a second climax, and followed her over a moment afterward, with heavy gasps and a dripping bottom lip. Lucy placed gentle kisses along the side of his neck, stopping briefly to kiss a spot where she'd bitten him quite hard in the midst of it all.

Ian rested his head on the floor next to hers, slowly loosening his grip on her hands as they both tried to catch their breath. "I just…want you to care," he gasped.

After a few long, deep breaths, Lucy turned her head towards his, and made him look at her.

"I **do **care."

Ian looked up at the dropped present a few inches away from his hand. He reached up and grabbed it. He put his weight on his elbows as he leaned his torso up; she still had her legs tightly wrapped around him. He pulled the wrapping paper off the small package to reveal a jewelry box.

Ian handed it to Lucy.

She furrowed her brow as she took it from him. She looked at him, and then turned her attention to the box as she opened it up.

"Ian…"

He rested his hands on either side of her ribcage. "Marry me, Lucy."

It wasn't even a question. It was more of a plea.

"I love you, more than I ever thought it was possible to love anyone. And I know we say and do stupid shit sometimes, and we drive each other nuts. I know you make me feel like I'm going insane most of the time, but here, like this? I don't want anyone else. It's like a god-damn inferno when I'm in the same room as you. Everything about you sets me on end, and I don't want to have to even have the option to think of someone else.

When you're not here, all I think about is you. When you're right here, like this, I still can't get close enough to you. But this, **this right here**, in this moment, and all the other moments we've had like this… feels complete, and real, and… I'm rambling."

Ian blushed. He looked down at the concave curve of her stomach and kissed the space just below the middle of her ribcage.

Lucy pulled the ring from its confines in the box, and slid it on her finger.

"You scare me, Ian," she said softly. He looked up at her.

Lucy cupped his face in her hands. "You scare the living hell out of me, because you know everything before I know it. Sometimes I want to just take the time to discover it for myself, even when you already know, and you're already there with the answer. And that scares the crap out of me. But if there's one thing I've known since that day I walked into your dressing room, it was that this was meant to be. There's not a day that's gone by in the last few months, that I haven't wanted to just screw all the typical answers we give to people, and tell them the truth. I don't want to lie about us anymore. I want to tell people, because I love you. Because, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to marry you, and have perfect little Ian Michael Harding Jr's running around here, making me as nuts as you do." Several tears ran off the sides of her face as she looked up at him. "And because you're right. Here like this, everything feels right, and complete. It terrifies me sometimes, how intense moments like this can get, because I know when you look at me, you're not seeing anything else. I just… it took me longer to get this far."

Ian sat up, pulling her with him as he rested on his knees. Her legs were still wrapped around him. 'Forever?"

"Infinity times infinity." She rested her forehead on his. He kissed her softly, but quickly. They both still needed to get their heart rate back down to normal.

Lucy dropped one of her legs. Ian groaned.

"Sorry," she murmured. She looked down at their torn clothing. "Shower?"

Ian nodded. "I'll throw your skirt in the wash after."

She placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed up off of him. She pulled her ripped tights from her legs and scowled at him as he stood up.

"These were brand new. I got them yesterday. And my mom is gonna be pissed when she finds out the shirt she got me for Christmas has no buttons left on it."

Ian nodded, pulling on the ripped collar of his shirt. "She can talk to my sister about this."

Lucy chuckled and shook her head. She walked over to the bathroom and pushed the door open. A few moments later, running water filled the silence of the apartment. Lucy popped her head out from behind the door. "Are you coming or not?"

Ian laughed. He crossed the room and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind them. Lucy pushed his shirt up off his body. Ian tossed it into the corner and wrapped his arms around her.

"I kind of love you a whole hell of a lot, you know?"

Lucy nodded. "I'm pretty fond of you too."


	2. The Best Thing That's Ever Been Mine

A/N: I swear this is NOT coming together as easily as the first one… lmao maybe because 99% of that one was nothing but sex? Anyhoo….I pulled the baby name from a baby book I picked up last night (I swear, that's got to be an author's best friend… I should've bought one so much sooner!), and the rest of it kind of just came together.

_The Best ThingThat's Ever Been Mine_

"Nice job, Harding." Ian looked up from the bag hanging off of his directors chair and waved his hands in surrender. "What?"

Lucy looked up from her iPad, smirking at Ashley.

"They give us four months off, and you two come back engaged and knocked up. Nice job."

Ian shook his head at her as he chuckled. "Just for that, we're not telling anyone what we're having."

Ashley gaped at him and marched over to Lucy's seat. "He's not serious, right?"

Lucy laughed, keeping her attention on a diligent game of doodle jump on her iPad. "He's serious."

Ashley turned towards Ian. "C'mon! You can't keep something like that a secret from all of us!"

"Keep what a secret?" Holly walked over and dropped her purse into her chair. She smiled at Lucy. "Morning, goose!" She looked up at Ian, still smiling. "Rookie."

Ian nodded to her, lifting a large cup of Starbucks to his lips. He took a long drink from it. "Mama bear."

Holly settled into her chair next to Lucy. "And how is baby Lucian today?"

"Kicking up a storm," Lucy said as she set aside her iPad. Ian handed her a plate of eggs. "I kicked most of the sugar out of my diet and I swear this kid had gotten worse."

Ian narrowed his eyes at her and then leaned across the chairs, whispering to Holly. "That's because she sneaks Starbucks when she thinks no one is looking." Lucy's jaw dropped. "I do not!"

Ian raised an eyebrow at her. Her hand was gripped around his cup of coffee. "Case in point."

Lucy let go of his cup of coffee, but there was a clear look of contempt on her face as she let go. "You put this problem here." She pointed to her swollen stomach.

Ian leaned over her chair, gripping the armrests. "Pretty sure I had some help from your ovaries, and the lack of birth control."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I miss coffee." Ian nodded. "So much that every time you walk into Starbucks, you throw up."

"Okay, so I can't stand the smell," she said dismissively. "That doesn't mean that it doesn't taste good."

Ian lifted a hand and picked a piece of egg off of Lucy's plate. He popped it in his mouth and munched on it.

"Delinquents!"

Ian and Lucy smirked at each other as he stood up straight and moved back into his seat. Marlene walked over to them and handed over a set of scripts to the four of them sitting there.

"Three oh five and three oh six." She turned towards Ian and Lucy and crossed her arms.

"Oh, we're in for it," Lucy muttered quietly.

Marlene simply shook her head at them. "We reworked all of season 3 for you two." Ian and Lucy both stared at the floor guiltily.

"So that baby better make mommy and daddy really happy," she finished with a smile.

Lucy and Ian both looked up at her.

"You're not going to kill us?" Ian asked.

Marlene rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I had three months to be angry." She looked to Ian. "Hope you're ready for Ezra to take a beating, though."

Ian grimaced. He'd read the first three scripts cover-to-cover more than once. Ezra was about to see hell for knocking Aria up. They had just resolved all their season two problems in the finale before Christmas. Fans went nuts over the fact that they had finally slept together. Now Ezra was facing threats from Byron and Ella once again of ending up in jail. Aria was pissed, and scared, and a thousand other hormonal emotions.

They were emotions that he wasn't unfamiliar with. Lucy had all but ripped his head off the day she found out they were pregnant. She had screamed at him and then started crying, and for six hellish hours, he wondered if there would ultimately even be a baby when all was said and done.

They were hours he spent picking up and putting down his phone, desperately wanting to call his mom, or Sarah… To just talk to someone about the fact that the woman he had asked to marry him had blown that bomb on him. How she seemed completely enraged and totally sure that it was all his fault.

How he was terrified that maybe she really didn't want to be with him, and that's why she was so pissed.

It wasn't like he had grown up with a hard life. He'd had it pretty good. His parents were still married, and he was close with his sister. But somewhere along the way, there just didn't seem to be the logic there that he deserved someone as warm and perfect as Lucy. Maybe it was because, as she always said, he always knew things before her.

"Speaking of baby Lucian-" "Huh?" Ian looked up from the crack on the floor he'd been staring at.

"I was asking if you two are ever going to start planning that wedding of yours," Troian said.

"After the baby is here," Lucy said. "Maybe next year sometime." Wedding plans had hit the backburner not even two days after he had proposed, because that had been when she had realized she was pregnant.

"You're very quiet, Harding."

Shay was standing next to his chair, munching on half a bagel.

"So you're really not gonna tell us whether it's a boy or a girl?" Ashley pouted.

Ian looked over at Lucy. She looked back at him with a smirk. "It's not like they won't employ other methods to find out."

"But it's so much fun," he said with a chuckle.

"At least tell us what you're going to name him. Or her?" Troian begged with a smile on her face.

Ian looked at Lucy again. She nodded. He looked back at the three girls. "Echo."

Ashley narrowed her eyes at him. "That doesn't tell us anything!"

He smiled at her and stuck his tongue out. "Maybe pretty little liars shouldn't tease the one with all the secrets."

"Okay, okay," Lucy said. "We'll tell everyone."

"Ashley! Troian!"

The two girls pouted, being forced to give up defeat as they were called across the set.

_Ian ran a hand through his hair, staring at his phone sitting on his desk. He hadn't seen Lucy in hours. He wasn't sure she was even still in New York. Every time he tried calling her, the call went straight to voicemail. _

_He walked out onto the balcony of his apartment, desperately needing anything just to pull him out of his own head space. His jeans and black sweater did little to keep the cold out, but at least he was feeling something else besides fear. _

_He stood there for a while, staring down as cars rushed up and down the streets. From where he lived, he could see Times Square off in the distance. _

"_Are you trying to catch your death?" _

_He spun in his spot. Lucy was standing in the doorway, wrapped up in one of his Carnegie Mellon sweaters. She'd stolen it that morning when she'd gotten up. _

"_I'm trying to do anything that doesn't leave me wondering if you…I don't know. You left me here wondering a lot of things. One of them being if you were even coming back." _

_Lucy's shoulders drooped. "I was scared. We __**just**__ said we're going to get married. We've barely told anyone yet. I mean we haven't even told people we're together publicly yet, and now a baby? It's not that I don't love you. I just thought we'd been more careful than this. And plus, we're tied into contracts for a show based on books that include __**NOTHING**__ about our characters having a kid." _

"_That doesn't mean I'd __**ever**__ leave you or hurt you or make you do anything you weren't ready for," Ian said as he walked over to her. They stepped inside the apartment, and she closed the doors to his balcony. She grabbed his hand briefly and then yanked it back. _

"_Damn, Ian. Your hands are ice cold." _

_They walked over to the couch and sat down. Lucy took both of his hands and held them between her own, trying to warm them. _

"_I just don't want you to decide that you don't want this, or that you don't want to have kids with me," Ian said honestly. _

_Lucy shook her head, bringing his hands up to her lips. She kissed his fingertips and swung her legs up into his lap. "I would __**never**__ do anything to hurt you, or this baby. I love you." _

"Awww." Ian shook out of his reverie and looked over at her. She was flipping through one of the scripts.

"What's up?" He asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Ella sits down across from Aria at a table at the Apple Wood Grill. She reaches across the table and grabs Aria's hands. _Aria_, she says. Aria pulls her hands back. _You told me to get out, mom. You said a lot of things, actually. Things that really hurt. And…_ Aria's voice trails off, tears starting to build in her eyes. Her throat is knotted. _I didn't want this. But now this is what __**is**__. I still love him, mom. Don't take him away now. Not when I need him most." _

Lucy looked up at him. "Hey. Where's your head at?"

"Sorry," Ian said again. "Just thinking about how we got here."

Lucy settled her script in her bag and crossed one leg over the other, turning towards him. "You wanna be more specific?" She placed her hand over his, curling her fingers inside his palm.

Ian moved his hand back, interlacing their fingers. "Just how sometimes it phases me that we rushed into this. I wouldn't want it any other way, but I never imagined that in a months time we'd go from being in a relationship to being engaged and waiting on a baby."

Lucy pushed out of her chair and pulled him from his by their interlaced hands. They walked through several corridors, ultimately ending up in the set that was Ezra's apartment. Lucy led him over to the couch and sat down in the middle space, pulling Ian down next to her.

"How many conversations about our relationship have we had in here?" She asked.

Ian shrugged. "More than I can count. Why?"

Lucy shrugged, shaking her head. "Because you're the one that's always three steps ahead of me, but these last few days, you seem like a walking panic attack. What's got you so rattled?"

Ian shook his head and pulled her into his lap. He rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. "I'm terrified, Luce."

She leaned back and cupped his face in her hands. "Of what?"

Ian's chin dropped. He waved his hands in the air and then dropped them just as fast, wrapped around Lucy's miniature frame. "Everything. In four months, there's going to be a baby here, and I know it sounds stupid, but when I dreamed up the life I was going to have after college, this was it…Ten years from now. And instead, here I am three years later, and I'm frying all my circuits on coffee because I'm scared of screwing this up. I'm always afraid that I'm one step away from you walking out the door."

Lucy brushed her hand down the back of his head, playing with the strands of hair at the back of his head. "I'm scared too. I never expected to be going on 23 and engaged and pregnant. But," she said, reaching behind herself to grab his hands. "That doesn't mean that we can't do this. Excuse the corniness of what I'm about to say, but when I'm with you, I feel like we can do anything." Ian blushed and smirked.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Lucy murmured. "I thought we were alone in this, but there's people all around us, just waiting for the questions to roll in." Ian raised an eyebrow at her. Lucy nodded.

"Oh yeah. I called Holly yesterday in a panic, afraid of every little thing. The first thing she said was that she was wondering when I was going to call with all my questions. I bet if you called your mom and dad, they'd have some advice."

"Or tell me to stop being a child," Ian offered.

Lucy laughed and slapped his shoulder. "Your parents are **not** like that."

"Oh, what're you whining about, Rookie?"

Lucy and Ian chuckled as they turned over towards the doorway. Holly was standing there with her arms crossed playfully.

"The fact that you're gonna slap me later, Momma Bear."

"And this is why we call you rookie, Rookie. Whining is _so_ unprofessional," she teased as she walked over to the couch.

"Oh c'mon, Momma Bear! You're the _**queen**_ of unprofessional!"

Lucy shook her head at them. "The two of you are absolutely ridiculous."

"And yet you're still with him, goose." Holly said. She perched on the edge of the coffee table.

Ian rested a hand on her stomach. Lucy moved it a moment later, and he felt a swift kick.

"Well good morning to you, baby girl."

Holly's eyes went wide. "Rookie! I thought you two were keeping it a secret!"

Lucy shrugged. "We're just teasing the girls. We'll tell them in a day or two…Or when someone lets it slip."

"May I," Holly asked.

"Of course, Mamma Bear." He grabbed her hand and placed it where his had been sitting. After a few moments, there was another kick.

Lucy rested her head against Ian's and he tilted his head up to kiss her cheek.

"You are already so love, Echo Grace Harding."


	3. There's A God In This Moment

_There' s A God In This Moment_

Ian yawned, staring down at the carpeting of his apartment. He swore he'd been up more than thirty hours without sleep. Weren't babies supposed to sleep? _A lot?_

He lowered down onto his couch and laid down on it, resting his head against the cool fabric of his couch.

Lucy walked over to him, swaying back and forth lightly as she calmed Echo. "C'mon babe, go to bed. I can take care of her."

"You gotta work be to work at six," Ian slurred wearily. I'll stay up." Lucy chuckled, sitting down on the edge of the couch. "She's already back to sleep." She put her hand up to his forehead. "Ian, you're running a _really_ high fever. You need to sleep."

He opened his eyes and looked up at her. "**You** need to sleep, so that you can go to work in the morning. **I** need to lay here until the room stops spinning."

Lucy shook her head at him. She stood up and walked out of the room.

Ian slowly pushed himself up until he was sitting up. He planted both of his hands on either side of the couch and closed his eyes, waiting for the room to stop spinning. His side ached with the need to be sick again. He reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"C'mon," Lucy's voice came loudly. She wrapped her hands around his left right arm and gently pulled him up.

Ian groaned, letting her pull him up. He steadied after a moment. "Bathroom," he slurred. "Gonna be sick."

He stumbled over his own feet as they walked through the small apartment, into the bathroom. He felt his way through the darkness and squatted down in front of the toilet in time to throw up the water he'd drank not ten minutes earlier. Lucy knelt beside him and rubbed her hand up and down his back.

"Where the hell did you bring this bug home from," he asked a moment later as he winced from the burning in his throat.

Lucy frowned, shaking her head. "I don't know. No one at work is sick." She reached her hand around his head and felt his forehead again. "Damn, Ian."

She pushed up onto her feet and dug through the cabinets until she found an ear thermometer. She turned it on and then knelt back down beside him and placed the reader inside his ear. While she waited, she ran her fingers through his hair soothingly. He heaved again, his knuckles turning white as he held onto the sides of the porcelain bowl.

After a minute, the thermometer triple-beeped and Lucy pulled it from his ear, reading the lit-up LED screen. "A hundred and three."

Ian wiped the corners of his mouth with a piece of tissue. "Hooray for me."

Lucy shook her head again. "I'm putting you to bed with a bucket, and you're going to sleep. Sarah has been begging for weeks to baby-sit. And I'm calling your mom in the morning."

Ian shook his head, leaning back against the wall. "I don't need them to-" "What is it with you think you don't need anyone to help you," she growled. "There's nothing wrong with needing help, Ian."

"Then why-…Whoa…" He had shot up from the spot he was sitting in, ready to come back with a retort about how it seemed like he wasn't doing anything effective lately. Really, it was the fact that every time he was with Echo, all she seemed to do was scream for something else, but whenever anyone else was around, she was as content as could be. However, the sudden onset of dizziness had cut him off at the pass, leaving him swaying for moment.

Lucy grabbed his hand and directed to the bedroom with his eyes closed. The spinning was still bad, but not as bad as if his he was trying to figure out which way was down and up.

"Sit," she said as they reached the bed. Ian felt around in front of him and then crawled into the blankets, pulling them up tightly around his feverish body. Lucy walked out of the room in search of a bucket and a few other supplies, leaving him there for several minutes to shiver under the weight of his flu.

She returned a few minutes later with a 5 gallon bucket and placed it in front of him. She settled a glass of water on the nightstand and then walked around the bed and slipped in beside Ian. She scooted over next to him and let him rest his head in her lap.

She began running her fingers through his hair as she gently wiped at his forehead with a cool washcloth.

"That's c-cold!" Ian whined.

Lucy shook her head sorrowfully. "I know. Just rest. Try and sleep."

She continued to wipe away the layer of built-up sweat away from his brow line, and then wiped down the rest of his face and his neck as he laid curled up next to her. Lucy continued the motions until his breathing evened out; his exhausted body finally giving in to sleep.

She quietly slipped out of the bed, moving his head up onto his pillow. She walked out of the room, tossing the wet washcloth into a basket of dirty laundry set in the sitting room before she walked back into the bedroom.

Lucy walked over to Echo's crib, settled in the corner of the room. She reached a hand in and pulled the blanket up higher around her daughter and then watched for a moment longer as the baby girl's back rose and fell with each breath. She was Ian's spitting image, down to those big bright blue-grey eyes.

With a weary sigh, she turned away from the crib and walked around the bed. She crawled in and moved to the middle of the large bed, leaning down to kiss Ian's forehead. Even in his sleep, he shivered from his fever. She ran her hand up and down his arm a few times and then pulled the mounds of blankets up closer to his neck. He coughed wetly as she laid back against the pillow just behind him. She slipped her arm under his, and he squeezed her hand, lacing their fingers together.

He coughed again, turning his head into the pillow as a groan escaped him from the ache in his throat.

"Shh," Lucy whispered softly. "Just sleep."

He pulled her arm a little further around him as he resettled his head on his pillow, dozing back off.

When morning came, she was grateful. Echo made very little noise, and seemed cheerful to be awake. She packed up as quietly as she could, and snuck out with a note on the counter for Ian if he woke up before his mother arrived.

She proceeded to head off to work after dropping Echo off with Sarah. Her day passed smoothly, and for as much as she expected a call from Ian asking when she was coming home, it never came.

Lucy arrived home just before seven PM with Echo in tow. She was cooing up a storm in her car seat as Lucy walked through the door to she and Ian's apartment. His mother came around from the counter blocking off the kitchen from the sitting room with a large smile on her face.

"And who do we have here," she squealed cheerfully, taking the car seat from Lucy's hand.

Lucy dropped a grocery bag on the counter while Ian's mother removed Echo from her car seat and swayed back and forth, talking animatedly to her grand daughter.

"Where's Ian?" Lucy asked as she pulled food from the bag.

"Sleeping," his mother replied, assuring. "The boy certainly needed it. I'm glad you made him stay home today."

Lucy nodded, pulling a can of Monster Java from the bag. She cracked the top open and took a long drink. "Still?" His mother nodded, placing Echo in her swing nearby. "He snowballed, sweetheart. Fourty-four hours with only a two hour nap as a buffer, doesn't help the flu."

"Neither does throwing up a whole lot of nothing."

Lucy and Ian's mother both turned their attention to the small hallway that led to the bathroom and bedroom. Ian was standing there, looking disheveled in a pair of pajama pants and one of his Carnegie Mellon sweaters. His voice was raw from throwing up for three days straight.

"Why don't I get you some broth," his mother offered. Ian blinked wearily as he walked over to one of the stools behind the counter and sat down.

"Sure," he murmured. "Better than dry heaves, I guess."

Lucy sat down on the stool next to him and rubbed her hand up and down his back. She watched Echo out of her peripheral vision.

"Did you sleep okay?"

Ian shrugged, turning to rest his head against her shoulder. "I guess. Didn't do much for this headache, though."

Lucy reached across the counter and dug a hand into her purse. She pulled out Tylenol a moment later and placed it in front of him. "Will that help?"

Ian shrugged. "Took it before I came out here. Guess we'll find out."

Lucy ran her fingers through his hair and kissed the top of his head. "If it's any consolation, I think Echo _really_ missed you."

Ian forced a laugh, and whimpered at the ache in his stomach. "Right, so much that the minute she comes near me, she's going to scream."

Lucy chuckled. Ian sat up straight and she moved off her stool. She walked over to the swing and pulled Echo out from it. The baby girl cooed and stretched a little bit in the grasp of her mother's hands. Lucy walked back over to Ian, and gently rested their daughter in his arms.

Echo stirred slightly, nuzzling her face in the crook of his arm, and then began to doze.

"Seriously?" He said softly, tipping his head down towards Echo. "Six weeks of nothing but screaming, and **now **you've decided you love your father?"

Lucy brushed her knuckle gently against Echo's cheek. She squirmed a bit more. Lucy stood and grabbed one of the baby blankets from the car seat and set it on the counter.. Ian passed Echo off so that Lucy could properly wrap her up. Promptly, the baby girl began to scream and cry.

"Well _alright_!" Lucy said with wide eyes as she finished swaddling Echo inside the blanket. She leaned down and snatched another blanket from the car seat and wrapped it around Echo as she picked her up, and passed her back to Ian. Almost immediately, Echo stopped crying, curling into the comforts of Ian's chest. "I guess you're her favourite now." Lucy said.

Ian chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows. "So all I need to do for your attention is catch the flu and make myself crazy with no sleep, huh?"

Echo made no sound, though. She'd already fallen asleep.

Ian shifted her so that she was resting in one of his arms as his mom settled a mug filled with broth on the counter. He thanked her and picked it up, taking a long sip of the hot liquid.

Lucy lifted her phone up to snap a picture as Ian placed the mug back on the counter and moved his hand down towards Echo. He ran the back of his fingers against her cheek and let her wrap one of her tiny fists around his thumb.

She typed something in on her phone and then set it back on the counter. A moment later, Ian's iPhone buzzed. He picked it up. It opened up to his twitter feed.

_**lucyyhale:  
><strong>__**I can't believe this is all mine. twitpic(dot)com/90sd98s03**_

Ian smiled at the sentiment. He opened the picture, and it was the one that Lucy had just taken.

He hit the tweet back button, and began to type.

_**IANMHARDING  
><strong>__**lucyyhale Can't believe YOURE all mine. 3**_

As he sent it off, he noticed one, among dozens that were quickly coming in, was from Holly. He clicked on it.

_**H_Combs  
><strong>__**lucyyhale aww, goose. Miss you three.  
><strong>__**Sending my love!**_

Ian turned his phone towards Lucy, showing her the message. She snatched the phone from his hand. Holly's twitter feed lit up with a new message before she could type anything.

_**H_Combs  
><strong>__**IANMHARDING you be good to goose and swan!Feel better quick, Rookie 3**_

Lucy giggled. "She says be good, and to feel better quick."

Ian looked over the side of his phone. "She called me Rookie."

Lucy scrolled through Holly's feed for a moment before she started a new reply.

_**IANMHARDING  
><strong>__**H_Combs he's being plenty good.  
><strong>__**Swan is sleeping in daddy's arms.**_

She was about to put the phone down, but it lit up again with another reply. She clicked it and laughed.

_**H_Combs  
><strong>__**IANMHARDING you be good to Rookie, goose.  
><strong>__**Let him live to lose another argument another day.**_


End file.
